Fear of crime in Greece: a contradiction. An exploration of the main themes and issues of the problem and an investigation into the extent to which it is affected by the written press

Fear of crime has been a highly researched topic globally in recent years. Nevertheless a small amount of research has been conducted for the case of Greece. This dissertation aims to shed more light onto the topic of fear of crime in Greece and to attempt to discern a link between the problem and the influences of the written press. Primary research was used, in the form of a structured survey, which was completed by 465 Greek residents via an online questionnaire. This was done in order to measure people’s fear of crime and the links with victimisation and attitudes towards crime. In addition, a quasi-experimental design was also used which divided the participants into two groups in order to test the extent to which media portrayals affect their fear of crime. The data strongly suggest that fear of crime is very prominent in Greece despite contradictions in terms of victimisation rates and the realistic reasons behind these high levels. A link between fear of crime and the influence of the written press was not found in this study. The results of this study imply that more extensive research should go into the subject of fear of crime in Greece in order to determine the origins and attributions of the problem.